Words to the wise
by digby
E.J. Dionne says "Pplease don't normalize Trump." He calls on the Republicans to do he right thing and reject this destructive force in their own party. But he speaks to the left as well:
The fact that Trump draws opposition from the most ideological parts of the Republican Party heightens the temptation on the left to cheer his apparent victory. As someone who has argued that the right has long been on the wrong path, I understand this urge.
It’s certainly true that his feat vindicates much of what progressives have said about the conservative movement. Republican leaders have a lot to answer for, and not only the incompetence and timidity of their stop-Trump efforts.
They have spent years stoking the resentment and anger on the right end of their party that fueled Trump’s movement. They ignored the material interests of their struggling white working-class base and also popular exhaustion with foreign commitments fed by interventionist misadventures. Along with many Democrats, they underestimated the anger over trade agreements that accelerated the economic dislocation of the less well-off.
After this election, the GOP will need an extended period of self-examination. But no one on the left should applaud the rise of Trump as representing a friendly form of “populism” — let alone view him as the leader of a mass movement of the working class. He is no such thing. He is channeling the European far right, mixing intolerance, resentment and nationalism.
If anyone's confused about this, they need to read this piece by Rick Perlstein. Right wing "populism" is a feature of fascism, not a bug. It's certainly fair to look deeply into the conditions and circumstances that bring people to this point, but it's important to separate those impulses from the other ones --- and there are many --- that are drawing people to Trump. It's not all about economics. Not by a long shot.
The problem with Dionne's plea is that Trump's already being normalized and I don't know if the media can help itself. He's a slippery fellow. And frankly, I'm not sure they want to. As Fox News' Chris Wallace said yesterday, TV covers Trump excessively because ratings spike when they do. Are we really going to change that incentive?
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